Springsteen: Obama should lead an American reclamation project

From Bruce Springsteen:

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams From My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Discuss.

  • Becky (unverified)
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    A hearty amen to that. He has expressed this situation exactly as I see it.

    We are at a critical time in our history where we need what Barack Obama brings to the table more than we need just about anything else. That isn't to say that the issues like terrorism, guns, gays, God, taxes, abortion, foreign relations, corporate power, diversity, jobs, healthcare, war and peace, and education don't matter or won't continue to demand hard work and debate. But we cannot begin to deal intelligently and wisely with those issues if we continue on as we have been with leadership that is disconnected from us and unable to listen or reason. It has taken me a good deal of thought to come to the conclusion that despite my political differences with Obama, I am supporting him because he offers the best hope for the future of this country.

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    Send that man to Pennsylvania! Free concerts for everyone!

  • joel dan walls (unverified)
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    In the New Yorker, another perspective on Obama's remarks about bitterness in small-town America, one that we would all be wise to read. A key passage:

    "The real problem with what Obama said is that it’s basically untrue. In southwestern Pennsylvania, religion, hunting, and insularity predate the post-industrial era. They’ve become politically manipulable points in part because of economic decline, but to confuse wedge issues with traditional values is the mark of the high-minded reformer or the political junkie, or both. It’s the kind of mistake one could make only from a great distance, once those voters had become almost entirely abstract—and, again, no one wants to be an abstraction."

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    Ah yes, the New Yorker, a fine publication that is truly in tune with the essence of small-town, rural America.

  • trishka (unverified)
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    joel, but obama didn't say that the economic downturn caused PA folks to take up religion and guns, but rather that the result is that they cling to those things. which would suggest that he acknowledges their presence predates the economic downturn.

    so, much as i heart the new yorker, and i do, i think they pegged this one incorrectly.

  • Fair and Balanced (unverified)
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    Let's see, where is The New Yorker located? Oh, that's right, in New York.

  • Bill R. (unverified)
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    The Boss is an elite guy,an elite musician, and he knows an elite President when he sees him. Good for you, Boss! Born in the U.S.A.!!!! Yeah, yeah, yeah.. yeah..

  • Bill R. (unverified)
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    Hillary- the non-elitist "Screw-'em" she says:

    From Huffington Post:

    During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

    But a telling anecdote from her husband's administration shows Hillary Clinton's attitudes about the "lunch-bucket Democrats" are not exactly pristine.

    In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

    "Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

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    but to confuse wedge issues with traditional values is the mark of the high-minded reformer or the political junkie, or both.

    Wow... where has that New Yorker writer been since Reagan and the sorely mis-named "religious right" gained political power?

    Next question: How does someone observing the fruits of the TheoCon's conflation of traditional values with political wedge issues make that person culpable for the conflation?

  • A Former Fan (unverified)
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    "Top 10 Reasons Why Bruce Now Sucks" 1. Hasn't made a full good record since Born in the USA MORE THAN 20 EFFING YEARS AGO 2. Put E Street Band on hiatus and hired a lackluster replacement - FOR 10 YEARS 3. Wife in band - who is he, McCartney? 4. Too much acoustic shit 5. 41 Shots should have been called 41 Shots (Wasn't Enough) 6. Lucky Town/Human Touch - a third of an album of good songs spread over two albums 7. Now part of the Hollywood/Music/Entertainment liberal cabal 8. Actually thinks people care what he says or thinks 9. Takes self waaaaaaay too seriously 10. Became a total fuckwad - luckily Southside remains super-cool.

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